Our Spruce Trees

Today on my short afternoon walk I captured the trees we planted the spring after we built our home in 1994.  So these trees are almost 15 years old.  I ordered about 175 seedlings from the government nursery that's about one and a half hours southwest of here.  I decided it would be a good field trip for the kids to go on and so we called the school bus driver and told him not to stop that morning.  I needed a map and we enjoyed the drive through the country.  We picked up the seedlings and were sure to separate the White Spruce from the Blue Spruce.  We were also offered two Jack Pines.  The next day Grandpa came over to plow up soil for the Blue Spruce in two rows along the road and then the White Spruce were planted in four rows to the east.  We hooked garden hoses together to water the seedlings through the summer and the next spring the seedlings were about the same size as the tulips I'd planted between the rows.  We didn't water the trees after that and despite some very dry years most have flourished.  Now, a lot of the Blue Spruce are easily 20 feet tall.  On these gray January days everything looks the same but on a sunny day it's easy to tell that despite our care in planting somehow we got mixed up and there are a few White Spruce mixed in with the Blue Spruce Trees.  They seem to get along just fine!

I don't have the "January Blues" yet, but these snow covered trees are what we'll be seeing for the next few months - unless the sun shines.  We had a lot of snow and wind this weekend and more is expected.  No surprises though - we do live in Alberta. There was a province wide warning to stay off the highways this weekend so I imagine we weren't the only family making snowstorm soup.  Ours was delicious and we also made home made pizza.  I'm linking this to Mary's Little Red House - her mosaic is blue today too!